Security Deposits

Security deposits protect your business against damage or loss. EquipDash supports two methods for handling deposits: placing a hold on the customer's card (pre-authorization) or charging the deposit upfront.

How Security Deposits Work

When a booking includes a security deposit:

At booking time -- the deposit is collected from the customer (either as a hold or a charge).
During the rental -- the deposit is held while the customer has your equipment.
At return -- you either release the deposit back to the customer, or capture it (fully or partially) if there is damage or loss.

Deposit Methods

Your preferred deposit method is set in Settings > Payments > Checkout, Deposits & Card Readers. There are two methods:

Method	How It Works
Hold (Pre-authorization)	A temporary hold is placed on the customer's card. No money is actually charged. The hold is released when you release the deposit, or captured if needed. Holds typically expire after 7 days depending on the customer's bank.
Charge	The deposit amount is charged to the customer's card upfront. When items are returned undamaged, you refund the deposit.

Collecting a Security Deposit

Security deposits are typically collected during the booking flow when the customer pays. If the deposit was not collected at the time of booking:

Open the booking from the bookings table.
In the Payment card on the right, find the Security deposit row at the bottom and click it to expand.
Click Place hold or Charge deposit (depending on your configured method).
Choose a payment method: Tap to Pay (card terminal) or Credit card (Stripe).
Process the deposit using the selected method.

The Place Security Deposit Hold modal showing the deposit amount and payment method options.

Deposit Statuses

Status	Meaning
None	No security deposit on this booking.
Held	A pre-authorization hold has been placed on the customer's card.
Charged	The deposit has been charged to the customer's card.
Released	The deposit has been released back to the customer (hold removed or refund issued).
Captured	The deposit (or part of it) has been captured due to damage or loss.

Releasing a Deposit

When items are returned in good condition:

Open the booking.
Expand the Security deposit row in the Payment card on the right.
Click the Release button.
Review the confirmation message and click Release Deposit.

If the deposit was a hold, the pre-authorization is cancelled and the funds are released back to the customer's card. If the deposit was a charge, the amount is refunded to the customer's card.

The Release Security Deposit modal showing the deposit amount and a Release Deposit button.

Capturing a Deposit

If items are returned damaged or not returned at all, you can capture part or all of the deposit:

Open the booking.
Expand the Security deposit row in the Payment card on the right.
Click the Capture button.
Enter the amount to capture in the Capture amount field. This can be the full deposit amount or a partial amount.
Click Capture Deposit.

The captured amount is transferred to your Stripe account. If you captured less than the full deposit, the remaining amount is released back to the customer.

The Capture Security Deposit modal showing the deposit amount, capture amount field, and Capture Deposit button.

Setting Up Security Deposits

Security deposits are configured in three places, depending on what you want to control:

Settings > Payments > Checkout, Deposits & Card Readers -- choose your preferred deposit method (Hold or Charge).
Settings > Rentals > General Settings -- set the default deposit amount (fixed or percentage) that applies to every rental product, and toggle whether widget bookings collect a hold automatically.
The product detail page -- override the default on a single product (e.g. a high-value boat) without affecting the rest of your catalog. See Per-Product Security Deposit below.

Per-Product Security Deposit

Every rental product has a Security deposit by default toggle on its detail page. The toggle has two states:

Off (default) -- this product follows your supplier default from Settings > Rentals. 99% of products should stay on this setting.
On -- this product requires a deposit. You can optionally enter a custom hold amount if a high-value item (e.g. a $750 pontoon) needs a larger hold than your default.

To change the per-product setting:

Open the product from Rentals > Products and click the product name.
In the Product settings card on the right of the detail page, find the Security deposit by default row.
Click the toggle to turn it on. Leave Store default blank to use the supplier default, or click the Edit pencil to set a custom amount.
The change saves immediately.

The Product settings card on a rental product detail page showing the Security deposit by default row in the inherit state

The same toggle also appears in Step 3 (Additional Information) of the Add Product modal when you create a new rental product.

The Add Product modal Step 3 showing the Security deposit by default toggle with helper text about the supplier default

Multi-Item Cart Behavior

When a customer adds several deposit-bearing products to one cart, each per-unit hold is summed into a single booking-level deposit. The widget summary and booking detail both show the combined total.

How the Percentage Default Is Calculated

If you set the supplier default to a percentage (e.g. 20%), the percentage applies to the pre-tax subtotal -- not the tax-inclusive total. For example, a cart of $18.00 + $2.07 tax has a 20% deposit of $3.60 (20% of $18.00), not $4.01.

Customers booking through your website widget can also have a deposit hold placed automatically at checkout, so you do not have to chase them for the hold after the fact.

Go to Settings > Rentals.
Under Default security deposit, tick Collect deposit holds on online bookings.
Click Update.

Widget holds are off by default for every supplier -- enabling the checkbox is opt-in.

What the Customer Sees

When widget holds are enabled, the checkout summary shows a Security deposit (hold) line under Total, with the helper text "A temporary hold placed on your card, released after a clean return."

When the booking is confirmed, EquipDash places a Stripe pre-authorization hold on the same card the customer used to pay for the rental. The hold:

Is placed automatically and off-session -- most cards do not prompt for a second confirmation.
Appears as a pending charge on the customer's statement, not a real charge.
Can later be released or partially captured the same way as in-person holds.
Is shown on the booking detail page so your team can release or capture it.

When a Hold Does Not Place

A small number of cards (mostly those that require Strong Customer Authentication) reject off-session holds. When that happens:

The booking is still created and confirmed.
The deposit obligation is recorded as Pending on the booking, so it is not silently lost.
Your team can manually place the hold later from the booking detail page, or contact the customer to arrange it.

Booking Detail View

The Payment card on the right of the booking detail page shows the deposit amount and current status. Each held or captured deposit also appears as its own row in Payment transactions, with the Stripe PaymentIntent ID for reference.

The booking detail page showing the Payment card with a Security deposit row at the bottom and a status pill

Important Notes

Security deposits require Stripe to be connected.
Pre-authorization holds have a limited duration (typically 7 days). If the hold expires before you release or capture it, you may not be able to capture the funds.
All deposit actions (hold, release, capture) are logged in the booking's history.
Cash or bank transfer deposits are tracked manually in EquipDash -- the actual money handling happens outside the system.
Widget holds are placed on the same card the customer used for the rental payment. EquipDash does not store an extra card on file for this.